Disavow Dead Links?
-
I haven't found a good answer to this yet. I know the whole "disavow" tool is still relatively new but we have a ton of dead links, actually most of the dead links are sites that have 404'd. Is it necessary to disavow these?
-
I came across that article when looking for an answer to this question. That is a great point though. Don't want to tell on ourselves here!
Thanks a lot for your help on this!
-
That is pretty much what I was thinking (and hoping). I just needed some confirmation.
Thanks so much for the help!
-
Well played Matt
The main reason I am saying 100% confident is that you can mess up your website VERY easily using this tool. So you need to be very cautious in choosing to use it.
This is a great article: 6 Things To Think About Before Disavowing Links from Search Engine Land. It states, "If you haven’t actually been penalized and you start disavowing your links, you’re essentially outing yourself to Google that you manipulated the system. Make sure that you equivocally know you were penalized and it’s not just some random fluctuation in rankings, a sitemap or indexing problem, or an accidentally no-indexed page."
Just sayin' be careful.
Good luck!
Mike
-
Different domains. So I would disavow at the domain level.
There are spammy links in my analysis. These dead links are some of them. If I go through the whole disavow process, it's recommended to get them all. I just don't know if dead pages or domains should be included.
We haven't gotten any warnings. We've seen some drop in traffic, but most rankings have held steady. The site has paid for links in the past, pre me of course.
and you are 100% confident they are causing issues with your site.
Can we really be 100% confident in anything SEO?
-
Hi Matt,
It is fair and reasonable for a site to be decommissioned from time to time (or a page or two OR say a category of pages). As the page no longer exists, you can't ask the admin to remove your link (which is what Google expects you to do before disavowing a link), so I would simply ignore these links in your exported list. They will disappear from GWT and OSE over time as they are no longer in existence.
Disavowing links amongst other things helps Google determine a sites intent on the web and therefore they only want you to utilise this service if you no longer trust the relevance of the link and have had no joy requesting it's removal.
Hope this helps,
Dan
-
Are they all from different domains or the same domain?
And regarding the Disavow links tool, Google specifically states, "We recommend that you disavow backlinks only if you believe you have a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links pointing to your site, and if you are confident that the links are causing issues for you." - I would not recommend using the tool unless you have been warned by Google or you have thousands of spammy footer links or something and you are 100% confident they are causing issues with your site.
Mike
-
Yes, Dan, that is correct.
Either the page that contained a link to oursite.com from someothersite.com is gone or the whole site is gone yet they still show up as an external link to oursite.com.
If it was only a few I wouldn't worry about it but there are a lot like this, hundreds probably.
So, for links like these, would that be a use for the disavow tool?
-
Hi Guys,
I edited my response above to clarify the confusion. Can you confirm Matt...
You are discussing a page on an external site that currently 404's. This page used to have a link to your site and subsequently was added to Webmasters and OSE in the past. Now this page no longer exists, but the reference still remains in Webmasters and OSE. Correct?
Dan
-
Here is how I am understanding your situation and how I would either fix it or not worry about the 404s. Please correct me if I mistook what you are saying:
randomsite.com has a link pointing to yoursite.com/randomarticle.
yoursite.com/randomarticle no longer exists, so when Google or a visitor clicks on the link on randomsite.com they receive a 404 error (saying that page does not exist).
you can set up a 301 redirect on your server so when someone clicks on the link to yoursite.com/randomarticle from randomsite.com they are redirected to an applicable page (for instance, yoursite.com/newarticle) instead of getting the 404 error.
Mike
-
These are external links. Can't 301 them.
-
So you have two options:
-
create redirects to point to relevant content.
-
let the links continue to 404 and Google will eventually remove them from the index.
Mike
-
-
I didn't explain that right. These are external links pointing to our site. These show up in GWT and OSE. I exported the external links from those two sources and ran them through an http status tool.
-
404 client errors can either be concerning or not. If an external website is pointing to a non-existent page on your site and it returns a 404 page, that is normal.
If you have a bad or broken internal link and visitors receive a 404, that is bad.
If you are seeing these 404 errors in Google Webmaster Tools, they can be from either external sites or your own site. You can choose to either set up 301 redirects if applicable OR you can simply let them die. GWT is simply alerting you that you may need to research the link. If you removed the page from your site and you do not have any other relevant content that replaced it, letting the link return a 404 is acceptable and Google will eventually remove that link from their index.
The Disavow Tools is mainly for spammy links pointing to your website and you have received warnings from Google for having a bad backlink profile.
Hope this helps.
Mike
-
Hi Matt,
A link (to your site) that is no longer accessible from a page (external site) it was on due to a 404, no longer counts. Why does it still cause you concern, is it still listed on webmasters or OSE? If so, I would suggest this is because the page has not been recrawled, or attempted.
If you're concerned that the page may reappear, I would recommend writing to the admin of the site to request it be removed. Disavow should always be your very last option.
Hope this helps.
Dan
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Links
Hi, im wondering if links that is not exact anchor links gives any boost for rankings? Example if lets say somebody links to my site http://domain.com/category/article with anchor: domainname or url link.
Link Building | | Rob_I0 -
Linking between properties
I own 3 domains. One is my blog, one is my photography business site, and one is my graphic/web design site. They are all hosted on the same VPS account. I link between each site. Also, since the links are either in the nav, footer or sidebar, all pages from one page link to the homepage of each other. Is this an issue for SEO? Should I not be doing this? Would it be beneficial to use a no follow link instead if I'm to keep them?
Link Building | | studio35design0 -
Linking Etiquette
Hi Moz Community, Long time lurker, first time poster. I work for a real estate firm and have recently done some link analysis. I'm noticing that my company is not getting linked to as frequently as we should be. Several news outlets (including NYT & Bloomberg) have cited our reports, interviews with employees and other original content belonging to my company without linking back to our site (although they do mention us).Some publications are even linking back to our competitors for similar content but not ours. Is it appropriate to reach out and ask for links from these outlets after they've been published? Does anybody have tips on making others aware we want links shared for future articles? Thanks in advance!
Link Building | | rlaughlin0 -
Link building
I keep sending personal emails to website asking for a link form them but every one says no how do other website get so many links to there website whats the best software to use
Link Building | | homesandindustrial0 -
Link Exchange
Hi everyone, I just started working for a client in a new niche. After reviewing the backlink profiles of his competitors I can see that the top sites are using a ton of link exchanges. They are from really spammy sites too. The kind that will link to anyone that provides a link back. Anyone else seeing much of this?
Link Building | | SixTwoInteractive0 -
Multiple links to dead pages
I have just taken over a client and have been shocked to see a lot of wasted 'link juice' from hundreds of websites linking to old/dead pages within my client's domain. My question is - what is the best method to re-capture that juice given that it is impractical to change the links at source. Thanks.
Link Building | | driansmith0 -
Link building diagram
is there a simple chart or diagram that explains the linkbuilding process from start to finish? thank you, Vijay
Link Building | | vijayvasu0 -
Link baiting with bloggers:
Are there any risks of getting penalized by Google if one was to publish a blogger competition on a corporate blog, in which participating bloggers have to include a link* on their blogs to enter? Bloggers also receive a small prize (CD, book,..) to thank them for participating. After what happened with Overstock.com do you think this kind of link-bait is risky? *each blogger has to write an original article and the links are organic. Thanks for your help. o1rRl.png
Link Building | | ref.price0